Manage Viva Engage users across their lifecycle from Office 365
There are many types of users in Viva Engage and managing each of them is different.
- Users with Microsoft Azure Active Directory (AD) identity
- Users without Azure AD
- Guests
As a Microsoft 365 Global administrator, you control the lifecycle for Viva Engage users through the Microsoft 365 admin center, in addition to managing them through Viva Engage.
All communities and groups from Viva Engage networks that are in Native Mode are managed through these admin centers. Some of the management capabilities regarding community or group members or users that can be done through the Microsoft 365 admin center includes:
- Add or remove community or group members
- Manage community or group ownership
- Delete a community or group
- Restore a community or deleted group
- Rename the community or group
- Update the community or group description
- Change the community's or group's privacy setting
When you create users in Office 365, they can sign in to Viva Engage with their Office 365 credentials. When a user is deleted from Office 365, they're automatically deactivated or suspended in Viva Engage. When a user is restored in Office 365, they're reactivated in Viva Engage.
The user's profile properties (such as name and department) from Azure Active Directory are automatically populated in the user's Viva Engage profile. Any changes to the profile properties in Azure Active Directory are reflected in Viva Engage.
If users have an Office 365 account, they can't update their information directly in Viva Engage. If users want to change their information, such as photos, phone numbers, and other data, they must update it through their Office 365 profile just as they would with other Office 365 apps. Depending on the organization, users may be able to update through Office Delve. A user might need to ask their IT administrator to assist.
Important
If a user had a customized profile prior to April 2020, it will be overwritten with their Azure AD identity to create a single source of truth.
The user's Viva Engage language setting is taken from Office 365 when the user's Viva Engage account is activated. If the user changes their Office 365 language setting or if the setting is changed directly in Azure Active Directory, Viva Engage doesn't pick up this change. The user can change their Viva Engage language setting in their Viva Engage profile on the Preferences tab.
This change means that we retire properties that aren’t synced today, like a user’s personal email account information. If you’d like to maintain information data from the About Me settings – such as Schools, Expertise, and Interest - we recommend that you export this data. Use Microsoft Graph to update the users’ Office profile, or ask users to update it themselves in Microsoft Delve.
How are user photos managed?
If new users in your network already have the correct user photo from Azure AD, it continues to work after this change.
If your organization usually uploads photos from Viva Engage, you can follow these steps:
- Export the list of users.
- Use that list of users to export their photos via a script.
- Re-upload them via Microsoft Graph to make it their photo in the rest of Office.
Create a user
The user creation process varies depending on when the Viva Engage network was created.
Networks created before March 2019
Beginning in March 2019, we started transitioning how Viva Engage users are created. The process differs for existing Office 365 users versus new Office 365 users.
Pre-March 2019: Viva Engage users are created when they use Viva Engage for the first time.
The process of creating a user requires these steps:
The Office 365 admin creates a user in Office 365.
The user signs in Office 365 using the identity provider that is configured for the tenant.
The user selects the Viva Engage tile in the Office 365 app launcher to go to Viva Engage.
A new Viva Engage user is created for the Office 365 user. The user's profile properties and language setting from Azure Active Directory are automatically populated in the user's Viva Engage profile.
New networks, Native Networks, and Enforced Office 365 Identity Networks
When Enforce Office 365 identity is selected in Viva Engage (including when in Native Mode), as Viva Engage-eligible users are added to Office 365, they're automatically added as pending users in Viva Engage. Their status changes from Pending to Active the first time they use Viva Engage.
The process follows these steps:
The Office 365 admin creates a user in Office 365.
A pending user is created in Office 365. The first time the user uses Viva Engage, the pending user becomes an active user.
During transition: Different actions are taken for different user categories:
Type of user Viva Engage network configuration Way that they are added New users added to your Office 365 tenant Enforce Office 365 identity selected Users are automatically added as pending users in Viva Engage. Existing users in your Office 365 tenant Enforce Office 365 identity selected Office 365 users must still use Viva Engage in order to be added as a Viva Engage user.
Block a user
When an Office 365 administrator blocks a user in Microsoft 365 or Office 365, the user is signed out of Viva Engage and all other Office 365 services.
The process follows these steps:
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, select a user and choose Edit User. The Sign-in status appears in the user details.
Select Edit next to Sign-in status and switch Allow the user to sign in to Block the user from signing in.
This action flows into Viva Engage, and the corresponding user is signed out of Viva Engage (on all devices). The next time this user tries to sign in to Viva Engage from any device, they're prompted to sign in with their Office 365 credentials. However, the user can't sign in because their sign-in status is set to blocked. As a Viva Engage verified administrator, you can go to the Network Admin area, and look at the Account activity section to verify that the Viva Engage user is signed out and has no active Viva Engage sessions.
Delete a user
If an employee leaves the company, you can delete the user from Office 365. When the user is deleted from Office 365, the corresponding user is deactivated (also known as suspended) in Viva Engage. The following diagram shows how this works:
The process follows these steps:
An admin deletes a user from Office 365.
The user deletion in Office 365 flows into Viva Engage, and the corresponding Viva Engage user is deactivated in Viva Engage. You can do the same operation in Viva Engage admin center: choose Remove Users and select Deactivate this user.
Deactivated (or suspended) users show up in Viva Engage administration pages as being deactivated by System Administrator, as shown in the following screenshot:
When you delete a user in Office 365, the user becomes inactive. After approximately 30 days, user data gets permanently deleted. See Delete a user from your organization.
Similarly, when a user is deactivated in Viva Engage, that user becomes inactive in Viva Engage. After approximately 90 days, deactivated users are permanently removed, but their name, files, messages and activity data are retained.
Important
When you delete a user from Office 365 and this flows through to Viva Engage, the user's name, files, messages, and activity data remain in Viva Engage even though the user is deleted. For options that remove a user in a way that the user's name and data are also deleted from Viva Engage, see Remove users and Manage GDPR data subject requests in Viva Engage Enterprise.
Restore a user
When an administrator restores a Viva Engage-eligible user in Office 365, the user is reactivated in Viva Engage. The following diagram shows how this works:
The process follows these steps:
The Office 365 administrator can restore a deleted user in Office 365, as shown in the following screenshot:
This action flows into Viva Engage as well, and the previously deactivated user in Viva Engage is reactivated.
User profile information
The user profile experience differs depending on whether or not the account is connected to Azure Active Directory (Azure AD).
For Azure AD-connected accounts
Office 365 uses the cloud-based service Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to manage users. You can either manage users directly in the cloud or use Understanding Office 365 identity and Azure Active Directory to create and synchronize users and communities or groups from your on-premises environment.
When Office 365 users who are new to Viva Engage access Viva Engage for the first time using their Azure AD credentials, a Viva Engage user is created, and the Viva Engage user profile is populated with the Azure AD user properties. And when the user's profile properties are edited in Azure AD, they're updated in the existing user's Viva Engage profile. Say, the user's department changed in Azure AD, it's changed in Viva Engage as well.
User profiles that they see in Viva Engage are their Office 365 profile, if their organization uses Azure AD to manage user credentials.
To view their profile in Office 365, users can select on their profile picture and choose My account.
My account displays a user's account information for Office 365. If the organization allows editing personal information, then users can select Personal Info, and add the information they want. If the organization doesn’t allow editing, then the settings won't be editable and users see a **Why can’t I edit link they can select for more information.
User photos are synced from Office. To prepare for this change, make sure your organization’s photos can be found in any one of the following places:
- Go to the All users list in the Azure AD portal and then select the desired user for picture.
- Confirm the My account page in the Office portal has the photo.
- Get the Photo API using the Microsoft Graph preview.
- Get-the UserPhoto Exchange Online cmdlet, if applicable.
To view their profile in Viva Engage, users can choose Edit Settings, and then Profile.
For non-Azure AD accounts
If your Viva Engage users aren't in Azure AD, then they can update their profiles in Viva Engage by clicking Edit Settings, and then Profile.
The Office 365 administrator can edit user properties from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
To edit user properties in Microsoft 365 or Office 365
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to the Users section, and select or search for a user, as shown in the following screenshot.
Select on the user, and choose Edit to change the properties, such as Username or Contact information.
Azure AD updates the following Viva Engage properties:
| Property in Azure AD | Property in Viva Engage |
|---|---|
| Email address Display Name Job Title Department Office Office phone Mobile phone Description |
Email Display Name Job Title Department Location Work phone Mobile phone About Me |
In Office 365, you can see the user properties that will be updated for Viva Engage in the following dialog boxes:
Edit email addresses dialog box
- Edit contact information dialog box
FAQ
Q: Are user profile pictures updated from Office 365 to Viva Engage?
A: Yes. The profile is updated with the user's Office 365 profile picture. This update is initiated when the user selects the Viva Engage tile from Office 365 or logs in to Viva Engage. Changes are reflected in the Viva Engage profile within a few hours. If the user later updates his or her profile picture, the Viva Engage profile picture updates after the user next uses Viva Engage.
Q: When an email address is changed in Office 365, does it trigger an email address change in Viva Engage?
A: Yes.
Q: What happens when a user leaves the company?
A. When a user leaves the company and Azure Active Directory is updated, their Viva Engage profile content is replaced with their start and end dates, and their title is changed to Former member. All the messages and files they posted remain in Viva Engage.
Q: My company has a configuration where not all Viva Engage users are yet in Office 365. How does life cycle management work in this case?
A: The users who sign in Viva Engage with Office 365 credentials can be managed in Office 365. You can continue to manage the users who don't use their Office 365 credentials the same way you manage them today. Eventually, when you move everyone to Office 365, you'll have one single place to manage all your users.
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